


Rocky Bay

by RosieTheRo



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Developing Friendship, Gen, Merfolk AU, Monstertalia, Near Drowning, apheeweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 19:06:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6127061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieTheRo/pseuds/RosieTheRo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The bay is his sanctuary and his prison. Completely unintentionally, he breaks his own solitude.</p>
<p>(Entry for apheeweek on tumblr. Prompts: AmeEst and Merfolk au)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rocky Bay

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in a single day, supposed to be much shorter and light-hearted, but somehow turned into this long, kind-of sad, ramble-ish thing. I proof-read as I went, so some things may still be rough.
> 
> Warnings for death mentions, vague references to suicide.
> 
> Original prompts:  
> http://fuckyeahaphestonia.tumblr.com/post/139832607650/

Eduard only came to the surface at night.

His little bay was full of jagged rocks, surrounded by fairly small cliffs on two sides, only about 50 meters or so in height, and a thin beach in the middle, which sloped up into a steep hillside. The largest rocks peaked out of the water’s surface, giving him a good place to sit under the moonlight when he came up, and the twisted piles of craggy rocks below the water’s surface gave him a good place to hide in the day. Humans tended not to come into the bay, staying by the beach to wade or paddle, but avoiding the deeper water to stay away from the large, sharp rocks, and the small but dangerous eddies and whirlpools that formed around and under them, strong enough to snatch a person down and drown them.

He was perched on one of those large rocks now, careful eyes scanning the shoreline about a hundred meters away. The beach was empty, so he looked up at the cliffs, seeing no one standing on their edges.

He heard a distant horn and looked out at the open ocean, at a fishing boat approaching the island. He waited, watching it, until it turned away from the rocky bay towards another, safer harbor, vanishing behind the cliffs.

One last glance around the bay, just to double-check. Still, there was no one, and the cool wind brought only the scent of salt water to him.

Finally feeling safe, he opened his mouth and began to sing.

The moon was half-full that night and the skies were clear, bathing the bay in silver light, starlight twinkling in the water as it lapped gently against his rock, small waves splashing against his frilled tail and shimmering blue scales. He closed his eyes and focused on the sound, feeling his own voice reverberate in his chest, heavy with sorrow.

He sang of what he knew; of loss and longing and loneliness, of currents too strong and his young body too weak, of watching his pod get farther and farther away as the slipstream carried him away faster than they could swim. He sang of small moments of fortune, of finding this small sanctuary from the open ocean, thanking the stones that kept him hidden, kept him safe for all these years.

He sang of fear, of gazing out from his bay and seeing nothing but the deep, hazy blue beyond, of those giant, ominous shapes he glimpsed in the distance, of wanting to leave but not knowing what awaited him in that terrifying abyss beyond the relative safety of his rocky bay.

The haunting melody that drifted across the rocks and cliffs trembled as his voice faltered, shaking with grief as he opened his eyes and gazed up at the moon, wondering if his family could see it too, wherever they were. He hoped so. It was such a beautiful sight.

A sudden, loud splash made him jump, cut off his song as he twisted around to look back at the shore.

That wasn’t the sound of waves hitting the rocks. The water was far too calm tonight to create big swells anyway. No, no, that was the sound of something falling into the water, and something large at that. Panic crept into his chest as his eyes darted across the edge of the bay, searching for anything that hadn’t been there before, when more sounds reached his ears.

Frantic, panicked splashing, a body flailing in the water, and a choked, garbled voice crying out “H-help!” It was coming from somewhere in the shadows of the cliff, hidden behind the rocks jutting from the surface.

He feared for more than just himself now. Eduard dove into the water, weaving himself smoothly through the rocks and around the whirlpools, following the sounds to the bottom of the cliff. He flitted through the rocks, until he saw a body flailing near the surface, struggling to stay above the water, legs caught in one of the largest eddies in the bay.

Humans were dangerous. Eduard knew that. In his time at the bay, he’d gotten tangled in the nets that they’d carelessly left behind, found hooks and broken glass that could have seriously injured him, breathed in water that was tainted and made him gag from the things they threw in it. It was one of the few things he’d learned growing up before getting separated from his pod; never go near a human. Humans were curious but careless, dismantling and disrupting anything they found of interest in their bottomless thirst for knowledge. If there is a human, hide. If the human comes looking, swim away as fast as you can.

Still, despite all that, Eduard could not bring himself to turn his back on the drowning human. Without even really thinking about it, he dodged around the eddy and swooped up beneath the human, catching him under the arms and pulling him to the surface with a powerful kick of his tail.

The human gasped sharply, coughing and spluttering, still squirming in his panic, and Eduard tightened his grip as he pulled them away from the eddy, circling around the bottom of the cliff towards the beach.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said firmly, swimming on his back and keeping the human braced against his chest, facing up to the sky. “Calm down, just breathe, I’ve got you.”

The human began to settle, going limp and letting out a heavy, raspy sigh of relief. “Oh god, thank you,” he choked roughly, before breaking out into a harsh, hacking cough, spitting out sea water.

While he brought them to the shore, Eduard began to realize the situation he’d just put himself him. What in the vast seas was he supposed to do with this human? Obviously he was going to take him to the beach, but then what? Just leave him there? He thought perhaps he could just shove the human on land and swim away, but he was clearly shaken and probably hurt from falling and nearly drowning. Eduard doubted he could make it up the hill towards the inland, but what was he supposed to do about that without any legs? So, should he stay with the human, just to make sure he was alright, and risk himself being discovered?

He was far from coming to a decision by the time they reached the shallows, feeling the wet sand below brushing against his dorsal fins. Any farther and he’d risk beaching himself. He’d be fine on land for a short while, as long as he stayed wet, but if he got stuck too far in, he’d be left out in the open to completely dry out once the sun rose.

“Can you walk?” he asked the human.

“Yeah,” he responded, still panting heavily. “Yeah, I think so.”

Eduard rolled slightly in the water, just enough to let the human off and get on his hands and knees in the shallow water. He knelt there, head down, blond hair hanging over his face, gulping air like a starving man. Eduard fidgeted, hesitating, still debating if he should stay or leave.

Before he could make the choice, the human looked up, and saw him. Even at night, with his lower body still submerged in water, there was no way for Eduard to hide what he was. If the shining blue scales scattered across his back, shoulders, arms and cheeks weren’t a dead giveaway, then the frilly gills under his rib cage had to be.

Stunned and scared, Eduard stared, and the human stared back, open-mouthed and still panting. Eduard was tense, ready to throw himself back into the waves if the human made even the slightest move towards him, but something unexpected happened.

The human laughed. A little deliriously, shaking his head, the human laughed out loud, interrupted part way through with a hard cough.

“I’m dreaming,” he gasped. “I just got my ass saved by a merman and I’m fucking dreaming…”

Well, that would be a convenient cover, Eduard thought. But, before he could respond, the human looked up again, his smile falling, eyes slowly widening with realization.

“This… this isn’t a dream, is it?” he asked.

What point was there in lying now?

“No,” Eduard said, shaking his head. “No, this is real.”

“…holy _shit_.”

The human turned, sitting down heavily in the shallow surf. He stared at the waves washing up his legs.

Eduard fidgeted, digging his fingers into the sand, before deciding to speak up.

“You could be hurt,” he said. “You should go to a healer.”

“Yeah,” the human mumbled faintly, slowly pushing himself up to his feet. He stood shakily, and Eduard again wondered if he’d be able to make it up the hill alright. The human looked worried about that too, grimacing at the steep incline in front of them. “That’s not gonna be fun to climb back up…”

“…I wish I could help,” Eduard said softly.

The human looked back down at him, his face breaking into a slightly wobbly smile. “Hey, you literally just saved my life… I think that was pretty helpful.”

Eduard smiled back, a little nervously.

“Alfred!”

They both jumped, looking back towards the hill, where two beams of light were bobbing down the narrow path.

“Arthur?” the human called back, stepping out of the waves with a limp. “Mattie?”

With a loud splash, Eduard dove back into the surf and kicked his tail, heart pounding in his chest as he darted around the rocks, retreating into the bay. Through the water, he heard muffled voices from the shore, shouting and talking loudly, and he began to feel sick as panic rose in him again.

What was he thinking?! Now humans knew where he was, and they’d be after him by sunrise! He remembered the horror stories from his youth, about the nets and hooks and getting dragged from the safety of the sea to suffocate on land.

He reached the center of the bay, the area where the water was relatively calm where he usually slept, and hid himself beneath one of the rocks, gills fluttering madly as he panted heavily for breath.

He couldn’t hear anything from underwater anymore, and that made him more nervous. What if they were already after him?

The only way he could know for sure was to check. He slowly swam out on top of the rock, eyes on the surface, practically quivering with fear. He had to know. He decided that if he surfaced ad saw them coming after him, either in their boats or scaling the rocks, he would flee. He would swim right out of the bay and into the open ocean. Surely, a better fate than being captured.

He crept up the rock, keeping his body low and moving as little as he could. The rock jutted out of the surface at a sharp angle, letting him hide behind it even once his head broke the surface, and he peered around it towards the beach.

The lights were still there. In the moonlight, he could see three figures on the sand, two of them tightly embracing while the third stood close by. At this distance, his ears worked better than his eyes, so Eduard listened closely.

“What were you thinking?!” a voice asked, sounding incredibly upset. “Y-you just went over the edge, Alfred, what were you doing?!”

Eduard recognized the voice of the human he’d rescued responding.

“I, uh… I guess I was sleep-walking.”

“Sleep-walking?!” a third voice demanded. This one sounded different from the other two, in the way it said certain sounds and noises. It sounded just as upset as the first voice, though with a lot more anger as well. “You don’t open a bloody bolt lock in your sleep!”

“Guys, I… I didn’t do that on purpose, I swear. I’m not… I wouldn’t do something like that.”

The first voice was trembling now. “Al, let’s just… Let’s get you to the hospital, okay? Can you walk?”

“I’ll need some help getting up the hill, but yeah. Oh man, Mattie don’t cry, I’m okay…”

Eduard saw one of the lights sweep in his direction and ducked back behind the rock with a sharp gasp.

“Good lord, look at the rocks out there… How did you even make it to shore?”

Eduard went tense all over. He was ready to spring off the rock in a second, make a bee-line for the opening of the bay… but still not ready to face whatever lurked out beyond the safety of his stones.

“I… I guess I’m just that lucky. Currents must have caught me.”

The light had stopped scanning the rocks now. Slowly, Eduard peered back out.

The three humans were heading towards the hill now, two of them supporting the third on their shoulders.

“Lucky?!” the accented voice asked incredulously. “If you were lucky, you wouldn’t have fallen off the edge in the first place!”

The rescued human laughed tiredly. “Yeah, guess ‘luck’ isn’t the right word. Still, things could have been worse.”

“ _Way_ worse,” the voice that had been shaking added.

Their voices faded as they slowly ascended the hill, and Eduard dropped back into the water, sliding down to the rocky floor and curling his tail around himself.

The human was with his own kind and safe.

Eduard was left alone and safe.

He felt surprised and amazed at what had just happened. Why would the human lie? Had he really thought he was dreaming?

Maybe that was for the best, he thought, curling up under his usual rock. He felt emotionally and physically drained, exhausted despite his heart still thudding hard in his chest. He needed to rest, he knew it, but his head was still spinning with worry and questions.

One lingered until he fell asleep completely.

Why did the human jump off the cliff in the first place?

-

Eduard didn’t come up to the surface for a long time after that.

He slept most of the days away, circling the bay at night, agitated and anxious. His chest practically ached with his desire to breach the water and sing under the starlight, but each time he approached the surface, his heart would thud with fear and his stomach would twist. He was terrified that he would lift his head above the water and see the beach full of humans, with their nets and their hooks, and he’d be dragged onto the sand, completely at their mercy.

He tried to leave many times, hovering at the edge of the bay, peering out between the rocks at the abyss beyond. He told himself again and again, _this is it, this is the day I leave, this is the day I go somewhere safer…_

He never made it past the outermost line of rocks.

Time passed until the moon was half-full again. He felt more trapped than ever, his voice silenced by the very waters that protected him. He lay despondent under the rocks, watching fish swim by without really seeing them. His stomach growled, and he knew he needed to eat something, but he’d been finding it hard to care about that recently, even though he was getting thinner. The bay had been his sanctuary for years, and now it just felt like a prison. The constant monotony, his mind spinning like the eddies and whirlpools, going nowhere while sucking everything else in with no hope of escape.

He felt like he was just waiting to die.

Something happened again that night.

The water muffled noise from above, just like it muffled his voice, but he could have sworn he heard someone call “Hello?” from up above.

He ignored it at first. Humans talked on the beach, it was nothing new.

But, there was no answer, and the voice came again. Again, it sounded like “Hello?”

Now, he was curious.

Moving slowly, Eduard slid out from under the rock and swam to the surface. He paused, just under the waves, gazing up. He could see the moon, dazzled and refracted by the water, and his song ached in his heart.

“Hello? Are you still out here?”

He heard it more clearly now, and recognized it.

Silently, he pulled himself above the waves, hiding behind the same rock he had a month ago, a peered out towards the beach.

The human didn’t have a light with him this time, so there was nothing interfering with the star or moonlight cast on him. Even at this distance, Eduard could recognize his features, realizing it was indeed the same human he’d saved from drowning. He tensed behind the rock, watching carefully as the human looked out across the bay. He was shifting restlessly on his feet, hands swinging aimlessly at his sides, until he cupped them around his mouth and called again.

“No one’s with me. I just, uhm, wanted to see you again.”

It was stupid. It was stupid and Eduard knew it, he’d already escaped with his life, so why was he tempting fate again?

He told himself these things even as he swam towards the beach, poking his head up above the water every few meters to double-check that the human really was alone. He always was, standing there and looking slightly awkward, searching the waves and rocks.

Finally, at the very edge of the sand, Eduard slipped behind the rock closest to the beach and pulled himself onto it.

“I’m here.”

The human, who’d been facing the other way, jumped and turned to see him, perched up above him on the lip of the rock.

“Oh,” the human said, looking startled. “Uh. Hi?”

Eduard blinked. “…Hello.”

They were maybe a little over a meter away now, close enough to touch if they both strained their arms.

They got closer, as the human stepped into the surf, small waves washing over his bare feet.

“So, uh,” he mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging. “Nice night, huh?”

Eduard just replied with “What are you doing here?”

The human shrugged again, digging his toes into the sand. “I just… wanted to see you again. Come talk with you. Ask questions, if you’re willing to answer.”

“Questions about what?” Eduard asked.

“About… you. Like, what… who are you?”

“Eduard.”

“Huh?”

“My name. I’m Eduard.”

“Oh.”

He seemed disappointed somehow.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing’s wrong,” the human said quickly. “I just, well… ‘Eduard’s’ not the name I expected for a merman. I was thinking of ‘Trident’ or ‘Neptune’ or something… Oh! Uh, my name’s Alfred.”

“Alfred,” Eduard said quietly to himself. Then, out loud, “I have questions too.”

“Okay. Go ahead.”

“That thing you keep calling me,” Eduard asked, folding his arms on the edge of the rock. “What is that?”

“What, ‘merman’?” Alfred asked.

“Yes, that.”

“It’s, uhm, it’s what you are. Or, well, I think… half-fish, half-person.”

Eduard blinked. “I’ve never heard that word before.”

“What about ‘mermaid’?” Alfred asked. “Or ‘merfolk’? ‘Merpeople’?”

“No, none of them.”

“Huh,” Alfred said, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I guess it makes sense if you had your own word for yourself…”

Eduard thought back to when he was young, trying to recall if anyone in his pod had ever referred to themselves as anything like that.

“I think…” he said slowly. “I think we call ourselves ‘sirens’.”

Alfred looked up, surprised. “What, really?”

“Yes. Why, does that mean something?”

“It might,” Alfred mused. “Hey, uhm, crazy question: were you singing the night I fell in the bay?”

“Yes, I was,” Eduard nodded.

“Holy shit,” Alfred mumbled, a hand over his mouth. He looked troubled, and Eduard began to get nervous again.

“What is it?”

“Did you…” Alfred started, then trailed off, seeming to be thinking of his words carefully. “Did you want to… hurt anyone that night?”

Eduard’s eyes went wide and he pulled back, away from the edge of the rock. “No! No, of course not, why would I want to?”

Alfred bit his lip. “We tell stories about sirens sometimes. Fictional ones, or, they’re supposed to be fictional at least. Anyways, sirens, according to human mythology, can control people with their singing.”

Eduard stared down at him, mouth open. “I… I’ve never heard that…”

“There’s this one story,” Alfred continued. “About this guy, Odysseus, who’s trying to sail home after this huge war. On the way there he passes by an island full of sirens, and they try to make him and his crew crash their ship on the rocks with their singing.”

Eduard put a hand over his mouth, realization creeping up on him and bringing horror with it.

“That night,” Alfred continued. “I was up late, and I heard… god, it was the most beautiful sound in the world, and I just… I wanted to be wherever it was. I followed it to the edge of the cliff and… I didn’t even think, I just needed to be there-”

“I didn’t want to…” Eduard said abruptly, his stomach twisting. “I-I didn’t _mean_ to-”

Alfred stepped out to the rock, and Eduard jumped when he reached up and gently grabbed his arm.

“Hey, hey, chill alright?” he said softly. “I’m still here, okay? You didn’t really hurt me.”

Eduard just shook his head, pressing his face against his hand. “I never knew… I’ve been coming here all this time to sing and I could have…”

“But you _didn’t_ ,” Alfred said firmly, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze. “I’m alright, and as far as I can tell, no one else here has ever drowned in this bay.”

Eduard looked back down at him, and Alfred offered a little smile. “Mind if I join you up on the rock?”

“…Alright.”

Eduard shifted over to one side while Alfred rounded the large stone, treading carefully in the shallow water. It was still too close to the beach for the floor to be really rocky, but there were some about.

Alfred climbed up on the rock with a grunt, laying on his back next to Eduard and glancing over at him.

“Woah, you have a tail and everything,” glancing down Eduard’s body. “You really are a siren, huh?”

“As far as I know,” Eduard said softly, rolling onto his back and facing out over the bay.

Alfred’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“I don’t… know a lot about myself. About what I am,” Eduard admitted, crossing an arm over his chest. “I got caught in a current when I was very young, too young to swim properly by myself. It pulled me away from my pod -my family- and I only managed to escape it when it dropped me here. The open ocean’s too dangerous, so, I’ve just stayed in this bay. I was still growing when we were split, so there was a lot I hadn’t learned from my pod yet. I had to figure out how to catch fish by myself, and I listened to humans on the beach to learn how to talk… I barely remember anything from when I lived with my pod, just that we call ourselves ‘sirens,’ and… and to avoid humans at all costs.”

“Why did you need to avoid humans?”

Eduard shifted nervously. “My pod told me they ruin things… they want to learn, but they don’t care about the thing they want to learn about, so they ruin them in the process.”

To his surprise, Alfred laughed, sardonically, a little bitter. “Yeah, we can be kind of assholes… Sorry about that.”

Eduard just made a small noise.

“…You saved me, though,” Alfred added.

“You’re still a living thing,” Eduard replied. “And drowning… it seems like a horrible way for a human to die.”

“…Do I scare you?”

Eduard’s tail curled. “A little,” he admitted.

“…D’you think I could change that? ‘Cuz, you seem like you’ve already been through enough crap, and if you’re stuck here alone, well… you deserve a friend, right?”

Eduard didn’t reply, looking out over the rocks.

“B-but don’t make yourself feel unsafe just for my sake, okay?” Alfred added quickly. “I mean, you did save my life and all so I’d like to do something for you in return but… If you’d prefer I just leave you alone, I will.”

Eduard sighed. “I don’t… want to be alone anymore. I would like a friend, so…” he looked back over with a shy smile. “I could try to get over this fear.”

Alfred smiled back. “And I wanna do what I can to help with that. So, friends?”

He offered his hand. Eduard knew what he handshake was, and returned the gesture, smiling. “Friends.”

Alfred beamed. “Cool.”

They lay back on the rock, looking out at the bay and the sky above. They were both silent for a moment, feeling a little awkward, so Eduard spoke up again.

“The two who found you at the beach,” he asked. “Who were they?”

“Huh? Oh, I guess you could call them my ‘pod’ if you wanted. They’re my brothers. Well, Arthur’s my half-brother, but still, he’s family.”

“Half-brother?”

“We have different moms, but the same dad,” Alfred explained. “Hell, we didn’t even know each other existed until a few years ago, when his mom decided to find our dad again and tell him she had a kid with him.”

“You live with him now?”

“Yeah, Mattie -my twin brother- and I both fell on some pretty tough times. Arthur inherited this island house from some old great-grandfather or something, and he offered us a place to stay here. In fact, I think you might even be able to see the place from here…”

He sat up, squinting in the darkness up at one of the cliff side. “Yeah, that right there?” he said, pointing. “I’m pretty sure that’s the roof.”

Eduard followed his hand. “I always thought that was just part of the cliff.”

“Nope, that’s home sweet home,” Alfred said. “We moved in really recently, only a couple weeks before I… well, we met.”

“I see.”

“…Matt and Arthur were pretty worried about for a while after that,” he said, sighing.

“…I’m sorry.”

“No, no, don’t be,” Alfred said quickly. “No, I’m sorry I brought it up, I… I know you didn’t mean to do it.”

Eduard sat up, arms curled around his tail, looking guiltily down at the small waves hitting their rock.

“The thing is,” he said softly. “I still want to sing. Even though it could really hurt someone.”

Alfred sat up with him. “It’s not just about luring in people for you, is it?”

Eduard’s shoulders hunched. “It’s all I know. When I was alone, without my pod, all I had was my own voice. I was too young to even understand what loneliness and grief were, so I just… coped with singing. And I only sang after dark because I didn’t want to get discovered, I had no idea it could… do that. But, even knowing that now…” He buried his face in his arms. “It still hurts not to sing.”

Alfred was quiet a moment, fingers fidgeting on the rock.

“I’ve been listening for you,” he admitted. “Partly because I wanted to find you again, but also… I meant it when I said it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. Maybe it was just magic or mind-control or whatever but… I wanted to hear it again so badly.”

They were both quiet for a moment.

“Uhm…” Alfred murmured. “Do you think maybe you could-”

“No,” Eduard said flatly. “No, never again, not when there’s humans around.”

“I’m not asking just for me,” Alfred said. “Just, looking at you… I can see it, you’re in pain, it’s _physically hurting_ you not to sing.”

“It’s not worth it,” Eduard replied. “Someone will get hurt again.”

Alfred huffed. “Listen. The human population on this island is tiny. Most everyone lives on the other side of that hill. Arthur’s house is the only one anywhere near this bay, and the only reason I heard you the first time was because I was having trouble sleeping in a new place. Arthur always wears earplugs and Matt’s visiting friends on the mainland tonight. I am sitting right here, on the same rock you are, nowhere near any cliffs or things I could walk off of to try and get closer to you. No one is in any danger right now if you sing.”

Eduard looked up at him, searching his face. Alfred looked determined and confident, and also very concerned.

About me, he realized, and something warm settled in his chest.

“…just once verse,” he said firmly.

Alfred grinned. “Good enough.”

Eduard sighed heavily, sitting up straighter. He looked out over the bay, at the half-moon and stars glinting in the sky above and in the black water below, everything cast in soft, silver light. Small waves lapped against the rock, splashing up and sparkling silver as the droplets tickled his tailfin and landed in his shimmering blue scales.

He opened his mouth, and he sang.

As always, he sang about the loneliness, the ache in his heart and the fear in his mind. He sang about the bay, blessing it for protecting him and damning it for trapping him. He sang about the current, the abyss, the rocks and the cliffs, the moon and stars and the silver light. His words were sad, filled with the grief of his years spent here, but he thrilled in feeling them escape his throat, the vibrations in his chest, tongue and teeth working smoothly to carve each phrase and melody, letting it out into the night, into the air, and he felt so much more alive with each and every syllable.

He added some new lines this time. He sang about guilt, and about how lucky he felt now, to be close enough to someone to feel bad about possibly harming them. He sang about blue eyes and freckles and sand-colored hair, about bare feet on the beach and a patient figure waiting in the moonlight.

He wanted to sing more, about handshakes and smiles and sharing knowledge, but he cut himself off. He’d said just one verse, and that was it.

The night was silent again, save for the lapping of the waves against the rocks. Eduard was silent too, his chest feeling lighter than it had in weeks. He kept his eyes closed, felt the lack of heaviness, and smiled softly.

“That… that was wonderful.”

He looked up, saw Alfred still sitting beside him, eyes wide and shining with tears, his face the most honest expression of sheer joy he had ever seen. His gaze was a little hazy, but he was looking right at Eduard, beaming.

“…thank you,” Eduard said softly. “Are, uhm, are you alright.”

Alfred blinked, the haze fading a bit, and he glanced away. “Yeah, yeah, I just… wow. I mean, _wow!_ ”

He took off his glasses, wiping at his eyes with a small sniffle. “I feel like I could die happy right here and now…”

“There’s more to life than just my singing,” Eduard reminded him, rather firmly.

“Yeah… no, you’re right,” Alfred added, coming back to himself as he slipped his glasses back on. “Shouldn’t forget about that.”

His gaze was clear again when he turned back to Eduard. “What about you? How do you feel now?”

“Better than I have in weeks,” Eduard said, looking back up at the moon.

Alfred leaned back on the rock, smiling and looking up at the stars. “Good.”

The night was quiet again for a moment.

Alfred broke the silence this time.

“You know, maybe we could make this a thing,” he suggested. “I could double-check to make sure no one’s awake around the bay, come hang out, and you could have a chance to sing without endangering anyone, and I can listen to you.”

“…Maybe,” Eduard mused. “We shouldn’t do it too often though, I have no idea what listening to me sing could do to you in the long term. It seems to mess with your head a bit.”

“Well, I can at least make sure no one’s around to hear,” Alfred suggested. “Which is a shame, ‘cuz your singing really is wonderful.”

Eduard smirked slightly. “You’re just saying that because it magically controls your mind and makes you think that.”

Alfred laughed out loud.


End file.
